The Brutish Museums The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution

New York Times 'Best Art Books' 2020 'Essential' - Sunday Times 'Brilliantly enraged' - New York Review of Books 'A real game-changer'- Economist Walk into any Western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen. Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections. The Brutish Museums sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the collections of empire we once took for granted.

ISBN:	9780745346229
Publisher:	Pluto Press
Imprint:	Pluto Press
Published date:	20 Oct 2021
DEWEY:	069.4
DEWEY edition:	23
Language:	English
Sales rank:	9011
Number of pages:	xvii, 345 , 16 unnumbered of plates
Weight:	450g
Height:	197mm
Width:	130mm
Spine width:	28mm

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